MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript

Interview

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Joining me now is congressman from Virginia and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign, Chris Van Hollen. Congressman, great to have you with us tonight.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Ed, great to be with you. I"m a proud Marylander, from the other side of the Potomac River.

SCHULTZ: Did I say--I thought I said Maryland.

VAN HOLLEN: Virginia. That"s all right. We"re on the other side of the Potomac River.

SCHULTZ: I"m so sorry. I apologize for that. I know you"re from Maryland. I"ve got a lot of things cooking through my head tonight.

VAN HOLLEN: I know you do. No problem.

SCHULTZ: -- pissed off at Cheney and the Republicans, if you know what I mean.

VAN HOLLEN: I feel your pain.

SCHULTZ: But a very parochial comment here I"ve got to make off the top. I know that you have better soft-shell crabs in Maryland than in Virginia. So I hope that gets me back in the family quickly with you. All right?

VAN HOLLEN: You"re on. I hope you just boosted sales for Maryland.

Thank you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: All right, in 2010, it"s going to be about security. Is it or is it not? What do you think?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, it should be about American security, generally, both our national security and our economic security. And that"s why we"ve been working hard from day one to try to get the economy around.

But, as you said in your statements, the Republicans would like to turn this into some kind of fight about a national security. And from the Democratic perspective, we need to say, bring it on. Because as you and others have said, when it comes to national security, you look at the record of former Vice President Dick Cheney and the fact that he had misled the country on many different times when it came to the situation in Iraq, and was responsible for diverting important resources and attention away from fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and towards Iraq, and essentially cost us years in the fight against al Qaeda.

We should have that debate. But I think the American people would be appalled to find out the information you just provided.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

VAN HOLLEN: It"s not just Pete Hoekstra. But the National Republican Campaign Committee--that"s the House Republicans and the Senate Republicans--are also sending out fund-raising material, trying to raise money off an attempted terrorist attack against Americans. It"s shameful. And the American people need to know about it.

SCHULTZ: Well, at the top of the show, congressman, I asked that--for 2010 that the Democrats would have a New Year"s resolution and punch back on Dick Cheney. And I"ll be dog gone if I didn"t get it fulfilled right away, within the last half hour, because the White House has put out a statement on Dick Cheney.

I want to read it. It"s rather lengthy, but it"s to the point. They write: "to put it simply, the president is not interested in bellicose rhetoric. He is focused on action. Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the president. Second, the former vice president makes a clear untrue claim that the president, who is the nation"s commander in chief, needs to realize we are at war. I don"t think anyone realizes this very hard reality more than President Obama. The difference is this: President Obama doesn"t need to beat his chest to prove it. Unlike the last administration, we are not at war with a tactic, terrorism. We are at war with something that is tangible, al Qaeda, and its violent extremist allies. We will prosecute that war as long as the American people are in danger."

Hallelujah. This--I think the White House has smack them right back. Is it going to be different. Is the approach, in your opinion, congressman, in 2010 going to be different when we keep hearing all of this rhetoric from righties in this country that we"re not safe unless we vote for them.

VAN HOLLEN: I think we have to go right back at them, Ed. Look, the former vice president has had a chronic problem with truth telling. We all remember when he continued to insist that somehow Iraq was tied up with the attacks of 9/11, which know for a fact to be untrue. And on and on and on again.

The fact of the matter is, it"s good to see the White House coming out swinging. The fact is that this administration, the Obama administration, has been on the offense against al Qaeda far more than the previous administration, whether it"s in Afghanistan and Pakistan, or Somalia and Yemen. After all, we lost years by diverting resources and attention away from the Afghan-Pakistan border and into Iraq.

The American people need to be reminded of that fact. It"s unfortunate that we have to go about setting the record straight. We should, as the president has said, be focusing all of our time and attention on trying to make sure that we strengthen our Homeland Security system. It"s very ironic that the same people who are trying to raise money off of this voted against the recent Homeland Security appropriations, which was to provide more resources to the Department of Homeland Security. Pete Hoekstra and the Republicans voted against that. That included funds for increased detection of explosives.

So let"s do what the president said. Let"s focus on strengthening our country. Unfortunately, we"ve had to spend the next 36 hours setting the record straight. It"s important to do, for the reasons you"ve said, because we can"t allow these falsehoods to sit out there on the table unanswered.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, great to have you on. You have a great holiday. Appreciate your time.

VAN HOLLEN: Thanks.

SCHULTZ: And to make up for that faux pas I had, go Terrapins. Does that work OK?

VAN HOLLEN: That and the Maryland crabs. You"re back in here, Ed.

Thanks.

SCHULTZ: All right. Thank you.

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